Institute on Race & Poverty Receives $100,000 Grant

NOVEMBER 17, 2008—The Law School’s Institute on Race & Poverty (IRP), under the leadership of executive director Myron Orfield, Julius E. Davis Professor of Law, was recently awarded a one-year $100,000 general project grant from the Open Society Institute and Soros Foundation Network to support its work. IRP has received this level of funding since 2006 from the organizations’ U.S. Programs Office in New York.

Established in 1993, IRP investigates the systemic ways that policies and practices disproportionately affect people of color and the disadvantaged, and it promotes alternative strategies to address these conditions. Through research, communications, mapping, and legal advocacy, Professor Orfield and a staff of 10 provide resources to policymakers, civil rights advocates, and the general public to address structural disadvantages based upon race and class.

The Open Society Institute is a private grant-making foundation created in 1993 by investor and philanthropist George Soros to support his foundation network of institutions across the world. It implements initiatives aimed at supporting the rule of law and building free and open societies. Initiative targets include human rights, education at all levels, public health, economic reform, and legal reform.